First Day Fun & Freebies!

Ok, so as far as smooth starts to the year, this has been anything but. I was allowed to go back into my room a week early, as usual. Between the air conditioner not working right and having workers at the house I really didn't get much done there at all. I went in on Saturday devoted to just plowing through and getting tons done. Well, I woke up with the WORST pain in my jaw. I thought it would probably go away, but about an hour into working it was killing me. Luckily my dentist was able to see me on a Saturday afternoon. Turns out that after 25 years of being in my mouth, my wisdom tooth decided it was a great time to become infected. Talk about PAIN! Long story short, I had to wait a few days, but the tooth was eventually pulled and all is well, but most of my preplanning week was spent in severe pain or a pain killer haze. So not the start I wanted. But, as always, it came together in the end.

Ok, so enough of my sob story. Let's get to the goodies. This year my gift to the team was a blingy whistle in this cute little bag. It's ok, they get my sense of humor. I got the whistles here. (They're nice and loud!) I just stuck on a rhinestone initial sticker that I picked up from Michaels. The bags are from there too. Here's the label if you want it. You need to download the KG Eyes Wide Open font free from tpt in order to edit the "Love, Denise" part.

Next up are the bags I give my kids during Meet the Teacher. We give out a few things for parents and I always give my kids the "Ready Confetti" card. Here's a link that explains that a bit more including a free download. It's just easier to put it all in a bag so they don't have to go down a table and take one of each. This year I added a little bag of Goldfish with the "Ofishally a Second Grader" tag on it. You can grab that here.

When the kiddies actually came for the first day, it was a whirlwind as usual, but we got to do a few fun things. First up was our handprint puzzle. They decorate a blank puzzle with their handprint, then attach this label to the front of a business size envelope and take it home. You can download the label free here. There's a girl and boy version. The puzzles are from Amazon. You can get them here. The description is a little confusing, it's a pack of 24 puzzles. I promise.

Then we pulled out the play-doh. What kid doesn't love that! They had to use it to create something about themselves, then tell the class about it. My partner teachers' class did it first, so we visited them and then we made our own. We had a plate of cookies:

A girl and her family:

A dog:

A stack of pancakes!

There were a lot of other good ones too. This was the first time we did this one, but I'll definitely keep it in the rotation for next year.

Then we played our You & Me Under the Sea Icebreaker game. It was a big hit and a great way to practice expectations for how to play learning games (like don't roll the dice across the room or throw it so hard it bounces off the table...)

Things are going a bit more smoothly and I have to say, these kids are covered in all kinds of awesome sauce! I'll be back to share my room reveal soon. It's actually not all the way done yet. But that's ok. It will happen eventually!

And here's a bit of fun news! TpT is throwing another big sale! It's for one day only, August 20. My entire store is set at the maximum discount of 28%. Happy shopping!

I LOVE your You And Me under the Sea Game! I printed out a bunch, laminated them, and can't WAIT to have my new students play them when school starts after Labor Day! I love your shop. Best to you this new school year! Kath